10 reasons why your characters blue eyes dont matter, and what does.
In this post, I’m going to focus on Character creation. How to set realistic characters that you’d want to meet up with one day. I know from all my experience with stories that it isn't easy creating a personality. Humans took a LOT of time to evolve and so will your character. The process takes time and a lot of patience, you have to create a persona that resonates with not only you but your target audience (the readers)
1. Establish their role
Every character has a role in the story, in the book Harry Potter, Harry’s role was to kill Voldemort and find out what happened to his parents. Though he has plenty of roles in the story, these two were his main ones. Establish a role for your character, what he does in the story, how he changes it, and how he impacts the story.
2. Create a Backstory
Backstories are like a character's past, even if it is not necessarily needed in the story, the writer must know. Creating a backstory helps the writer and reader relate to the character more and build a stronger relationship. We all have backstories, how we were before we realized who we actually are. It could be a traumatic experience or a journey of self-discovery. Creating backstories deepens the bond between character and reader as well as the writer.
3. Construct their identity
Their identity is referred to something they are remembered by. You most probably remember that singer because of the song she sang, or you remember that waitress because of the way she looked. Personal identity is very important, what are their uniqueness? How do they stand out? Is it in their habits, interests, talents, or appearance? Constructing a descriptive identity is the most important aspect of character creation
4. Find their narrative purpose
No matter the role they play, every character in your story must serve a purpose. If you can remove a character from your manuscript without impacting readers’ understanding of your plot or story world, then that particular character doesn’t add value to your story. If a character is being added he/she should have a particular value to the story and a specific role.
Give them a purpose or let them go
5. Create a persona
When you first meet someone, you tend to judge with your eyes. Maybe they wear their hair up all the time, or they lean toward wearing neutral colors. As time goes on, you get to know who they are as individuals, and suddenly know why they wear what they do, and why they do what they do. When you create a character keep this in mind: your character needs to have a personality. She needs to be filled with secrets, in the beginning, hinted through clothing. The character’s style should connect with their personality, and lifestyle, all of which need to be discovered as the game progresses. There should be depth here.
6. She/He should have flaws or false beliefs
We all have flaws, they might be obvious or hidden, but deep down, we all have them. Let's Take another Harry Potter example, Hermoine's biggest flaw is being bossy and having trust issues, Rons is having low self-esteem and lack of confidence, while Harry is rushing into things and hotheadedness. Make your character even more realistic by giving her a flaw or false belief.
7. Internal Conflict
There are two types of conflicts in a story, the external conflict, the main problem in the story, or the plot, and there’s internal conflict, an internal conflict is a character fighting against himself or his nature/ flaw. An example of internal conflict in harry potter is that when Harry first enters the school he feels like an outsider, because he had been growing up with muggles, and then over the course of time he starts fitting in. Having an internal conflict can increase character development.
8. Individual goals
Every character has an individual goal or aim in mind. We all have dreams and aspirations and we try to work towards them, give a character an individual goal that is nowhere related to the plot of the story. Something that help his/her character development, like an introverted girl’s individual goal, would be to be the life of a party, something the develops them from one of their bad qualities or habits.
9. Let them Evolve
Let's face it, static characters are not only boring, but they're unrealistic too. Sure, there may be a few people in your 'real life' that don't seem to change, but for the most part, people are constantly growing and evolving. When characters change in a story, it allows the story to move forward. Generally speaking, your protagonist needs to face some kind of challenge. In order to overcome this challenge, they will need to grow and evolve. Let them.
10. Perfection
This seems like a no-brainer, but so many people (I won't lie, myself included) get stuck on this 'being perfect' thing. Perfect does not exist.
Your characters don't need to be perfect, nor does your story. Especially if it's your first draft. Just get the words out of your head and onto the paper (or into the computer). And most importantly, have fun. You'd be amazed at how much better your writing is when you're having fun. To be credible, characters must have flaws as well as strengths, just like real people. Flaws in your characters give your novel depth and make characters believable. If a character is perfect, then all the conflict in the story is someone else's fault.
Following these ten simple you can create the characters of your dreams that you could wish to meet in real life and one that can and will continue to evolve after the story ends.
Comment below on the different ways you create realistic characters.
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